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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S1W-14647

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 15 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to ensure that children identified by a children's panel as being in need of supervision are allocated a social worker within 14 days.

Local authorities have a legal duty to give effect to supervision requirements made by children's hearings in their area.Inter-agency guidance on national standards for the processing of cases through the children's hearings system sets a maximum target of 15 working days from the issue of a supervision requirement for allocation of a social worker. The Scottish Executive will be monitoring performance against the standards. In individual cases it is for the local authority to be satisfied that it is meeting its statutory obligations.

Question reference: S1W-14413

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 15 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11227 by Susan Deacon on 8 January 2001, why the median waiting time for a first outpatient appointment with a consultant neurologist following GP referral in Forth Valley Health Board has increased from 36 days for the year ending 31 March 1999 to 154 days for the year ending 31 March 2000 and what action it plans to take to address this situation.

Question reference: S1W-15412

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 11 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether a vote of no confidence in a tenants' representative member of the board of Glasgow Housing Association by that individual's tenants' association ensures that person's exclusion from the board and replacement by another tenants' representative.

Question reference: S1W-15410

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 11 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria were used in selecting tenants' representatives to serve on the board of Glasgow Housing Association.

Question reference: S1W-15411

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 11 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Glasgow City Council staff it expects to transfer to the Glasgow Housing Association in the event of stock transfer, broken down by current department.

Question reference: S1W-15357

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 10 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive why output in the Scottish service sector in the four quarters to the third quarter of 2000, as reported in Lloyds TSB Business Monitor Issue 13-Winter 2001, grew by less than half the United Kingdom average and what steps are being taken to ensure Scotland's service sector grows by at least the UK average.

he following table gives a breakdown of official Scottish and UK GDP growth rates in the four quarters to 2000 Q3, compared with the preceding four quarters, for the published sectors within services.Scottish & UK 4 quarter on 4 quarter GDP growth rates to 2000 Q3¹

	Scotland	UK
Total Services	1.6	3.4
Retail & Wholesale	5.1	2.5
Hotels & Catering	-1.0	-1.6
Transport, Storage & Distribution	-2.6	8.0
Financial Services	5.3	2.6
Real Estate & Business Services	2.4	4.2
Public Administration, Education & Health	1.5	1.3
Other Services	1.2	3.3

Sources: Scottish Executive, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. The data for Scotland were published on 7 February 2001. Revised estimates

were published on 2 May 2001.The Way Forward: Framework for Economic Development in Scotland, published last June, describes the Scottish Executive's approach to improving the performance of the Scottish economy, including the service sector. This has been supplemented by the enterprise strategy set out earlier this year in A Smart, Successful Scotland, which emphasises the central issues for economic success: growing businesses; ensuring Scotland is globally connected, and lifelong learning and skills development.

Question reference: S1W-15333

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 9 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what each local authority's general fund balance was, in cash terms and as a percentage of total general fund net expenditure, at the close of each of the last three financial years for which figures are available.

The information for 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000 is contained in the table.

Closing Balances	1997-98 (£000)	% of Total Expenditure 1997-98	1998-99 (£000)	% of Total Expenditure 1998-99	1999-2000 (£000)	% of Total Expenditure 1999-2000
Aberdeen, City	6,892	2.80	3,096	1.24	1,363	0.52
Aberdeenshire	3,937	1.54	7,400	2.79	5,000	1.79
Angus	600	0.47	3,400	2.60	3,600	2.59
Argyll and Bute	-871	-0.65	401	0.29	801	0.56
Clackmannanshire	-891	-1.52	103	0.17	970	1.56
Dumfries and Galloway	9,190	4.93	3,872	1.98	4,863	2.40
Dundee	2,246	1.05	2,411	1.10	1,152	0.51
East Ayrshire	1,684	1.14	1,984	1.30	600	0.38
East Dunbartonshire	-2,653	-2.30	-1,898	-1.55	998	0.76
East Lothian	1,912	1.86	955	0.90	412	0.37
East Renfrewshire	0	0.00	1,232	1.25	2,300	2.18
Edinburgh, City	2,988	0.54	8,305	1.49	13,078	2.23
Eilean Siar	3,608	4.95	292	0.37	1,058	1.33
Falkirk	-905	-0.56	5,719	3.49	5,021	2.93
Fife	11,058	2.66	9,546	2.24	4,874	1.10
Glasgow	0	0.00	13,999	1.40	33,663	3.24
Highland	1,692	0.59	4,449	1.51	9,768	3.12
Inverclyde	3,189	2.68	4,697	3.88	1,506	1.17
Midlothian	1,730	1.72	1,037	1.01	1,618	1.52
Moray	967	0.93	1,016	0.98	457	0.42
North Ayrshire	-800	-0.49	-1,417	-0.82	-1,200	-0.67
North Lanarkshire	2,322	0.59	268	0.07	4,950	1.19
Orkney	193	0.47	202	0.47	0	0.00
Perth and Kinross	1,770	1.16	4,535	2.86	4,507	2.66
Renfrewshire	6,992	3.25	6,619	3.01	4,464	1.92
Scottish Borders	9,610	7.34	10,578	7.76	7,216	4.98
Shetland	7,237	12.23	9,918	16.58	9,918	16.16
South Ayrshire	0	0.00	0	0.00	0	0.00
South Lanarkshire	0	0.00	0	0.00	523	0.13
Stirling	6,537	6.21	3,183	2.83	5,872	5.10
West Dunbartonshire	2,494	1.83	7,195	5.11	5,330	3.63
West Lothian	407	0.22	1,408	0.75	1,500	0.76
SCOTLAND	83,135	1.27	114,505	1.70	136,182	1.93

Notes :1. Figures are net revenue expenditure which is total expenditure met from council tax, non-domestic rates and government grants excluding loan charges.2. The figures are Provisional Outturn as reported by authorities in the annual Provisional Outturn & Budget Estimate (POBE) return to the Executive.

Question reference: S1W-15334

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jackie Baillie on 9 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what each local authority's housing revenue account balance was, in cash terms and as a percentage of total housing revenue account gross expenditure, at the close of each of the last three financial years for which figures are available.

The information requested is contained in the table:

Housing Revenue Account closing balances as at 31 March
	1998-99		1999-2000		2000-01
Local Authority	Balance (£ million)	% of Gross Expend	Balance (£ million)	% of Gross Expend	Balance (£ million)	% of Gross Expend
Aberdeen City	9.4	15.1	5.0	8.2	1.6	2.8
Aberdeenshire	9.3	26.4	10.1	25.3	8.1	20.8
Angus	1.7	9.7	1.3	7.5	0.7	3.9
Argyll and Bute	3.3	18.0	2.2	12.9	2.0	12.2
Clackmannanshire	3.3	23.1	2.0	13.6	1.3	9.9
Dumfries & Galloway	8.9	26.6	7.2	21.2	3.0	9.5
Dundee City	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Dumbartonshire	0	0	0.2	1.6	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	2.1	10.8	0.4	2.0
East Renfrewshire	0.3	4.1	0	0.1	0	0.3
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	0	0	0
Eilean Siar	0.3	3.4	0.4	4.8	0.3	3.7
Falkirk	8.8	19.2	0	0.0	8.6	17.1
Fife	4.7	5.8	3.3	4.2	4.7	6.2
Glasgow City	0	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	21.8	35.0	22.0	34.5	19.4	30.3
Inverclyde	0	0	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	1.5	11.3	1.7	12.4	1.1	8.1
Moray	2.6	18.4	2.0	13.5	1.3	9.3
North Ayrshire	2.4	7.4	1.7	5.3	0.9	2.8
North Lanarkshire	1.1	1.2	2.0	2.1	0.4	0.4
Orkney	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth & Kinross	8.2	35.0	8.4	32.7	5.0	19.2
Renfrewshire	1.2	2.9	4.3	8.7	0	0
Scottish Borders	1.3	8.3	0.6	4.0	0.5	3.5
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	4.4	19.8	0	0	2.2	9.2
South Lanarkshire	3.0	3.8	0	0	0	0
Stirling	1.4	8.1	2.1	11.5	1.8	9.6
West Dumbartonshire	1.4	4.6	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	0	0	1.2	3.6	1.5	4.2
Total	100.3	7.9	79.1	6.3	64.8	5.1

Source: 1998-99 - HSG1A 1999-2000 - HRA extract of audited accounts 2000-01 - HRA Form (near actual)

Question reference: S1W-15331

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 9 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Glasgow Housing Association regarding conveyancing plans, disclosures and warranties, environmental risks, terms of the transfer agreement, protocols and sale of assets in relation to the proposed Glasgow housing stock transfer.

Question reference: S1W-15329

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 9 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what resources have been allocated to the Independent Tenants' Adviser in relation to the proposed Glasgow housing stock transfer to enable the adviser to circulate information to tenants.